Which faith is more destructive to the civilized world, Islam or Christianity? This is a question I think about from time to time. At first, I thought it was an easy one to answer, but despite deceiving first appearances, the question is not so easily answered. Instead of "Christianity vs. Islam", I selected "Islam vs. Christianity" as the title because the more obvious candidate most would consider to be worse is Islam. Not so fast...

More than anything, Islam is what it appears to be. It is unapologetic about what it is and what it intends to do -- convert the world and kill any and everyone who refuses to go along with it. Islam is a monster, a rabid, hideously ugly, monster, with red glowing eyes, and gray, cold, stinky, scaly skin. It's razor sharp claws and well-used, saber-sized, protruding fangs can be seen from a great distance away. The closer you get to the beast, you begin to hear the threatening, and growling sounds of an angry, snarling, beast. From the very outset, there's no question that this creature is hungry and anxiously hell-bent on making a meal out of you. Islam is openly aggressive, expressly intolerant of the beliefs of others, and suicidally violent, no matter what you hear from the proponents of the more toned down versions of modern Islam who tell us it is a religion of peace. Nonsense. Islam is a dangerous disease of the mind, a disease which must be destroyed before it destroys us.

On the other hand, I'm not being tortured, dismembered, or beheaded for choosing a religion, or lack thereof, with the current flavor of Christianity. I observe one group and find blatant savagery, tribal hatred, and a primitive, diabolical faith -- Islam. Then I observe Christianity, a beautiful faith which seems pleasant, clean, soft-toned, and proper in form and comeliness, but when I look at her underhandedness and manipulation of the world, I am equally appalled at what I see.

In the early 90's, just after my high school graduation, I had a job with Subway. One bright Monday afternoon, I was taking orders and making sandwiches as usual when a nicely dressed saleswoman came in, a knockout in the looks department. I noticed she didn't order anything, but just sat down at a table and waited for the line of customers to die down. I was young and naive at the time, and unbeknownst to me, was having a sales pitch pulled on me. It was very cleverly done. She was a smooth operator, peddling some cologne for men. I later learned one of the bright and shining pendants on her suit coat was an award for the most sales at her company. She worked me like a pro, starting in with polished small talk and ready answers for every reason I had not to buy..."What? You don't wear cologne? Women love cologne. Here, check out this sample, doesn't it smell good?" If she hadn't been so damn attractive, I would have felt verbally assaulted and told her to read the sign on the front door, "No Solicitors!" She didn't succeed in selling me, but sure as hell did a good job trying. When I discovered her intentions, the awestruck-ness went away. Her initial kindness and flirtatious personality, her goodly appearance and apparent interest in talking to me was all a nice facade, a put-on. I was no longer interested in what she had to say.

Christianity is a sweet-talking sales gal too. She can be hard to turn away from until we see her true colors. Underneath, she is not as noble and majestic as her contenders would like you to believe she is.

What kind of words can I use to describe Christianity? None really, the reason being, Christianity's forms are always diverse and changing depending on what angle a given set of her promoters are seeking to fight for.

But I am afraid of her...I'm afraid of one day waking up to a nation where the education departments promote creationism along side evolution, lumping superstition in with science. I'm afraid of our nation having to one day face greater difficulties because of religiously influenced leaders and commanders who feel compelled to put our soldiers in harm's way out of the Christian compulsion to keep helping the Jews fight their wars, while it costs the lives of our boys in green. I'm afraid of getting out of bed one day to find a government that has reverted back to oppressive edicts and judgments, like "Blue Law Weekends" and other unwanted products of biblical influences. I'm afraid to think of all the lives that will be lost if Christianity and her proponents continually stand against stem cell research and other developments of the vital sciences out of foolish superstitious paranoia. I'm afraid to one day open my eyes to find censorship increased and freedom of speech hemmed in, resulting in a greater stifling of liberty. I'm afraid to think of the loads of psychological damage inflicted by parents, pastors, and counselors, upon the kids and young adults in their care, who impose the damaging and restricting principles of New Testament morality and sexuality on their minds. I'm afraid to think that the right-wingers will one day get their wish and have abortion banned, forcing many handicapped children into lives of despair, and bringing more unneeded human lives into this world, weakening it. I'm afraid of growing old and one day being incapacitated by a stroke, and finding others having to wait on me, hand and foot, since euthanasia would be outlawed. This is why I am afraid of Christianity.

These changes would happen slowly, with sleight-of-hand motives and pie crust promises of politicians...subtely and discreetly, with the replacing of rulers, and the making of policies.

When I find myself contemplating the underhanded wiles of Christianity, I am reminded of this quote by Cicero...

"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." - Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Orator (106-43 B.C.E). “Speech in the Roman Senate.”

Like Cicero's description of the traitor, Christianity is a disarming opponent. Few seem prepared to handle her, and this can make her a greater threat than her vicious and cruel stepchild, Islam.

Then there is another factor involved: influence. We have to ask...which faith, with their dangerous and subversive qualities, can be the most far-reaching? Islam does not hold back their hatred of decency or civility. The powers that be - those countries who value love and peace - will see the beast coming, and knowing it's intentions, will knock the atrocious creature down to size and it will scurry off again to try another day. It is easily watched and tracked, and if kept on a short leash, does little harm. The beast is also poorly funded and it's grubby paws do not have access to the latest and best technologies. They can build gas chambers, but not atomic bombs. Christianity, in contrast, is sly, a seductive whore who sleeps with those in power to gain power of her own. She has greater influence, decadent wealth and funding, and access to the best technology on the planet. Currently, she stands as the most numerous of religions. One could well argue that this puts Christianity in the lead as a more dangerous force to be reckoned with.

So which is worse, the diabolical Beast of Islam or the turncoat Bride of Christ? I can't decide. I can't bring myself to identify either of them as categorically worse than the other. They are both abominations to mankind, and the sooner they perish from the face of the earth, the better.